Mn-Si-C alloy films are prepared by e-beam coevaporation onto a Si substrate held at 600 °C. Ferromagnetism is observed below T = (360 +/- 5) K with SQUID magnetometry and magneto-optical Kerr effect. This is the highest Curie temperature T yet observed for a Mn-based alloy. Although the composition determined by Auger depth profiling varies appreciably for different films, their T is the same indicating that ferromagnetism is caused by an alloy of well-defined composition independent of precipitations.

The static and spin wave properties of regular square lattices of magnetic dots of 0.5-2 microm dot diameter and 1-4 microm periodicity patterned in permalloy films have been investigated by Brillouin light scattering. The samples have been structured using x-ray lithography and ion beam etching. The Brillouin light scattering spectra reveal both surface and bulk spin wave modes. The spin wave frequencies can be well described taking into account the demagnetization factor of each single dot. For the samples with smallest dot separation of 0.1 microm a fourfold in-plane magnetic anisotropy with the easy axis directed along the pattern diagonal is observed, indicating anisotropic coupling between the dots.

A computer control for a Sandercock-type multipath tandem Fabry-Perot interferometer is described, which offers many advantages over conventionally used analog control: The range of stability is increased due to active control of the laser light intensity and the mirror dither amplitude. The alignment is fully automated enabling start of a measurement within a minute after start of align, including optionally finding the optimum focus on the sample. The software control enables a programmable series of measurements with control of, e.g., the position and rotation of the sample, the angle of light incidence, the sample temperature, or the strength and direction of an applied magnetic field. Built-in fitting routines allow for a precise determination of frequency positions of excitation peaks combined with increased frequency accuracy due to a correction of a residual nonlinearity of the mirror stage drive.

Static and dynamic properties of patterned magnetic permalloy films are investigated. In square lattices of circular shaped permalloy dots an anisotropic coupling mechanism has been found, which is identified as being due to intrinsically unsaturated parts of the dots caused by spatial variations of demagnetizing field. In arrays of magnetic wires a quantization of the surface spin wave mode in several dispersionless modes is observed and quantitatively described. For large wavevectors the frequency separation between the modes becomes smaller and the frequencies converge to the dispersion of the dipole-exchange surface mode of a continuous film.

Epitaxial growth of metastable Pd(001) at high deposition temperatures up to a critical thickness of 6 monolayers on bcc-Fe(001) is reported, the critical thickness being depending dramatically on the deposition temperature. For larger thicknesses the Pd film undergoes a roughening transition with strain relaxation by forming a top polycrystalline layer. These results allow to make a correlation between previ-ously reported unusual magnetic properties of Fe/Pd double layers and the crystallographic structure of the Pd overlayer.

We investigate the temperature dependence of the magnetization reversal process and of spinwaves in epi-taxially grown (001)-oriented [Fem/Aun]30 multilayers (m = 1, 2; n = 1- 6). Both polar magneto-optic Kerrr effect and Brillouin light scattering measurements reveal that all investigated multilayers, apart from the [Fe2/Au1]30-sample, are magnetized perpendicular to the film plane. The out-of-plane anisotropy constants are obtained. At high temperature, the magnetization curves are well described by an alternating stripe domain structure with free mobile domain walls, and at low temperature by a thermal activation model for the domain wall motion.

The dispersions of dipolar (Damon-Eshbach modes) and exchange dominated spin waves are calculated for in-plane magnetized thin and ultrathin cubic films with (111) crystal orientation and the results are compared with those obtained for the other principal planes. The properties of these magnetic excitations are examined from the point of view of Brillouin light scattering experiments. Attention is paid to study the spin-wave frequency variation as a function of the magnetization direction in the film plane for different film thicknesses. Interface anisotropies and the bulk magnetocrystalline anisotropy are considered in the calculation. A quantitative comparison between an analytical expression obtained in the limit of small film thickness and wave vector and the full numerical calculation is given.

We report on Brillouin light scattering investigations of the elastic properties in Co/Ni superlattices which exhibit localized electronic eigenstates near the Fermi level causing an oscillation of the resistivity as a function of the superlattice periodicity A. No oscillations of the Rayleigh and Sezawa mode as a function of A could be observed within an error margin of +- 2% indicating that the localized electronic states do not contribute to the elastic constants.

Static magnetic and spin wave properties of square lattices of permalloy micron dots with thicknesses of 500 Å and 1000 Å and with varying dot separations have been investigated. A magnetic fourfold anisotropy was found for the lattice with dot diameters of 1 micrometer and a dot separation of 0.1 micrometer. The anisotropy is attributed to an anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction between magnetically unsaturated parts of the dots. The anisotropy strength (order of 100000 erg/cm^3 ) decreases with increasing in-plane applied magnetic field.